The mere presence of a gun helped this child.

[Apex29]

Girl loads rifle to spook burglars

11-year-old ready to defend herself


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - When three teenage burglars pried open the door of a northwest Albuquerque home they had no idea they would be met by a brave little girl, police said Wednesday.

Alyssa Gutierrez, 11, took matters into her own hands Tuesday when police said when Miguel Marquez, Eduardo Zubiate and Jesus Quintana broke into her home.

Gutierrez armed herself with a loaded rifle.

"I was planning, if they came right next to me, I would shoot them," Gutierrez said.

But Gutierrez, who will start sixth grade next week, never got the chance because she'd spooked the burglars.

Gutierrez said her cousins went to run an errand around the corner from their home and were gone for a few minutes when she heard the backdoor rattle.

"I thought it was (my cousin) Zachary playing a joke on me so I just turned the TV louder and ignored it," Gutierrez said.

But on the other side of the door were the burglars who pried open the door with a crowbar. Gutierrez believes that they'd seen her cousins leave and chose to break into the home when they thought no one was there.

She said when the Marquez, Zubiate and Quintana got inside, she heard them talk about stealing guns in the home. Gutierrez and her family told KRQE News 13 that they knew one of the suspects and believed the group targeted the home to steal their guns.

"My heart kept on pounding and pounding," Gutierrez said.

She said she slid to the floor from the couch when she saw the trio, but quickly decided that hiding wouldn't do her any good because the masked intruders had seen her.

"They had a rifle so I was thinking, 'What should I do? 'What if they shoot me?'" Gutierrez said.

That's when she made a beeline for her mother's room.

"I ran back into my mom's room and grabbed her little pink rifle, and there was two bullets in there," she said.

With the loaded rifle, Gutierrez said she checked the bathroom and then the living room ready to defend herself. She said she ran to her mother's closet and called 911.

But while Gutierrez protected her home, she had no idea the suspects had jumped the fence and that an off-duty APD officer driving passed her home had spotted them.

Police arrested the three teens and their alleged getaway driver, Abraham Bustillos, minutes after the break-in.

Gutierrez said she feels lucky because just a few days ago she had learned how to shoot a rifle.

"I felt proud of myself," Gutierrez said.

http://www.wishtv.com/dpps/news/strange/girl-loads-rifle-to-spook-burglars-ob10-jgr_3543119

 

[Apex29]

When I was still living in the People's Republic of California we had a law that said that firearms had to be locked and secured from minors. That was the law.

Around 2002 (?) a home in Merced was broken into by some deranged savage. There was a teenaged girl at home who knew full well how to fire guns. The problem was that according to kal law, the guns were all locked in a safe and she didn't know the combo. The scumbag murdered her with a pitchfork.

Kudos to the child in the above article.

 

[MikeNice]

That is what I call a feel good story.

 

[TexasRifleman]

It's a good story, but still just another news report involving a gun.

Any lessons to learn from this? Maybe for those with kids?

Moving to S&T in hopes it will stir some good discussion about this. Sure do like a happy ending.

 

[uspJ]

I say she did a good job. She remained calm and kept her composure through something that many adults would have fallen apart over.

It would have been nice if one of her cousins had chose to stay with her, I'm sure that incident will have a lasting effect on the child.

I'd like to add that the child was lucky that those were petty crooks instead of hardened and determined home invaders. She was lucky that she wasn't put in the situation to actually have to decide if she was going to use the gun.

When I was still living in the People's Republic of California we had a law that said that firearms had to be locked and secured from minors. That was the law.

Around 2002 (?) a home in Merced was broken into by some deranged savage. There was a teenaged girl at home who knew full well how to fire guns. The problem was that according to kal law, the guns were all locked in a safe and she didn't know the combo. The scumbag murdered her with a pitchfork.

That is a truly sad story and a great example of why EVERYONE in a home should have the right to defend themselves.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Any lessons to learn from this? Maybe for those with kids?

Teach your kids how to safely and accurately handle firearms.

 

[beeenbag]

That is a truly sad story and a great example of why EVERYONE in a home should have the right to defend themselves.

Yeah thats a good thought but... I'm getting ready to have a little one of my own (day after tomorrow c-section baby) and I know I'm thinking way ahead here but, I dont think that I would leave a gun out for an eleven year old to get ahold of anytime she wanted to.

My solution would be to lock up the guns at all times (except my carry gun which would be on me all times) and not leave my little girl at home by herself until she is plenty old enough and mature enough that I would let her shoot unsupervised.

I have a previous thread that I got some good advice on how to raise kids around guns. I will keep them familiar to her but not accessible.

 

[Oyeboten]

Yes indeed - Moral of the Story: Provide good firearms instruction and Firearms Safety Habits lessons for one's children, take them shooting, for them to gain practice and ease... it can save their Life in many ways.

 

[gun guy]

Oh yea, excellent story, wonderful, if any of you have a teenage daughter, and she watches that bit, you may get to enjoy, the other side of this. Daddyyy, i want a pink rifle. Then you can go into your local gunstore too, and special order a pink 702 plinkster (cause they won't have it on the shelf) and listen to all your buddies and their witty remarks. This is one time i suggest you don't take a gun with you. All you can do is hold your head high, and take one for the team. Midway shooters supply has the matching pink gun case. Several companies offer pink ball caps. As to the pink cammo clothes to match, just hand her the credit card and send her to the mall. Who thinks this stuff up??

 

[valorius]

I bought my 12yo Godson a Hi Point 995 9mm carbine that he can use with surgical precision at real world gun fighting ranges, complete 3 full mags of Federal 9BPLE+P+.

He knows that i expect him to defend the family (or himself) if it's ever required- as he lives with my sister(his mom) and my mother(his grandma), [ . . . Non-High Road language removed.] There are also several loaded .357 magnum handguns in the house he has access to as well.

He knows that if he wants to look at a gun, ANY GUN, all he has to do is ask, and he can inspect it to his heart's content.

When i was 13 my dad owned a big night club(he's also an ex cop). He was out working late every night, so one day he walked into my bedroom, said "if anything ever happens, i know you'll defend the family" and slid a fully loaded Mini-14 assault rifle under my bed. (I learned to shoot when i was 5)

It stayed under my bed the entire time i lived with him....fully loaded.

 

[docnyt]

I'm glad it ended well for the girl's sake and that somebody took the time to instruct her in firearm use.

There are some aspects of the story that may not have been covered and that make me uncomfortable. Where are the parents? How come a loaded firearm is accessible to a child?

I'm teaching my kids proper firearm safety and usage. The 2 older girls have gotten pretty good with a Buckmark. Even the 4 year old knows the basic gun rules. But I would not be comfortable with them having easy access to any firearm unless it was a SHTF situation and I'm either incapacitated or occupied fending hordes off.

 

[gun guy]

Oh goodie, make sure you show your daughters mosseburgs pink gun line, and there are a few pink handguns too, Really, you haven't lived, till you see the looks on the faces, of all the tough guy, macho hard core 45 auto packin gun folk, and even the older hunter types, when you order a pink weapon, Nothing you can say is going to help, trust me. But if it promotes shooting sports, helps you bond with your daughter, and makes the world a better place,,Aww come on, anything but pink!!! And if you have a pet poodle, leave it home.

 

[docnyt]

Thankfully my daughters do not like pink guns. I've pointed out the pink rifles at gunshows and stores and online and they just don't like them. Lucky me no Evil Pink Rifles or kalashnikitty shirts at my house.

 

[valorius]

How come a loaded firearm is accessible to a child?

Because kids need a gun to defend themselves against a violent criminal about 100000000x more than an adult does, i imagine, would be the reason.

But I would not be comfortable with them having easy access to any firearm unless it was a SHTF situation and I'm either incapacitated or occupied fending hordes off.

And if the story that happened in the article happened in your house, your daughter would have been defenseless. They would have stolen all your guns- or worse. Much, much, much worse.

If you take the mysticism out of firearms and make it clear to a kid that he can see it anytime he wants as long as he asks first, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for them to ever go in there playing with the gun, as there is no mystery to it, no secret allure, no air of taboo.

My 12yo god son is perfectly clear on the fact that his 995 is a machine capable of inflicting death, he knows not to play with it. And what's more...he knows he doesn't have to, because he can see it any time he wants. All he has to do is ask. (surprisingly, he only asks to see it every few months)

And if the unthinkable happens, he doesn't have to become a statistic.

On the flip side, if he was an irresponsible young punk, i wouldn't even give him a slingshot, let alone any kind of a gun.

 

[docnyt]

Because kids need a gun to defend themselves against a violent criminal about 100000000x more than an adult does, i imagine, would be the reason.


And if the story that happened in the article happened in your house, your daughter would have been defenseless. They would have stolen all your guns- or worse. Much, much, much worse.

If you take the mysticism out of firearms and make it clear to a kid that he can see it anytime he wants as long as he asks first, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for them to ever go in there playing with the gun, as there is no mystery to it, no secret allure, no air of taboo.

My 12yo god son is perfectly clear on the fact that his 995 is a machine capable of inflicting death, he knows not to play with it. And what's more...he knows he doesn't have to, because he can see it any time he wants. All he has to do is ask. (surprisingly, he only asks to see it every few months)

And if the unthinkable happens, he doesn't have to become a statistic.

On the flip side, if he was an irresponsible young punk, i wouldn't even give him a slingshot, let alone any kind of a gun.

I realize the validity of your arguments but we will have to agree to disagree on very personal beliefs. There is no need for you to lecture me on how to approach firearms safety to my own children, and I totally agree with you on that but I will still have qualms about firearm accessibility in my house. Yes there is always the threat of the unpredictable and we all prepare for it in our own ways. For one thing, my 11 year old daughter would not have been left alone without adult supervision or at least with some type of alarm system in place. That is what strikes me as being woefully absent in this story.

I can't claim to know the facts in this case, but there are so many points where it could have gone wrong. What if the thugs decided to stay and overpower the girl and use the gun to kill or hurt her? What if they waited for the rest of the family and do the same to them? Would gun ownership and familiarity have mattered then? Or would the media have jumped on the lack of responsibility of the parents for gun accessibility and ownership? Would the parents have regretted buying the gun in the first place, since it was turned against their daughter in their absence?

Like I said, I'm glad things turned out the way they did.

I'm not going to post in this thread anymore as speculation is frowned upon here at the highroad.

 

[Manco]

When I was still living in the People's Republic of California we had a law that said that firearms had to be locked and secured from minors. That was the law.

I doubt that gun laws are more lenient today, and there is no such law in the books. The penal code actually says that if you don't lock up your guns and your child uses them in a crime, then YOU will be held criminally liable. On the other hand, if you do lock up your guns and your child uses them in a crime, then only the child will be liable.

Admittedly, people were told repeatedly by public officials that they HAVE TO keep their guns away from children, but that was merely advice, not the law.

Around 2002 (?) a home in Merced was broken into by some deranged savage. There was a teenaged girl at home who knew full well how to fire guns. The problem was that according to kal law, the guns were all locked in a safe and she didn't know the combo. The scumbag murdered her with a pitchfork.

That's too bad. Her father should have given her the combo.

 

[WardenWolf]

Good for her. Fortunately she didn't need to use it, but the realization that the child might be able to genuinely fight back scared them off.

I've had access to numerous guns in the home from the time I was 14 or so. My father realized I was very responsible, and a good shot. I loved shooting his Colt .45. My father got me my own .45, a Ruger P90, for my 17th birthday. That same gun now resides in my car, fully loaded in case of emergency. I've never had to use any of them against a human, although I have had to respond to the alarm going off on a few occasions (turned out to be a malfunction in most cases). These days I own more guns than my father, and introduced him to the world of semiautomatic rifles and Eastern Bloc firearms. He'd never fired an assault rifle before until I handed him my AK-47, but he instantly loved it.

 

[MedWheeler]

Docnyt, the article says that the suspects were already armed with a rifle when they gained entry. So, the girl still could have had a gun "used against her" without having to provide it herself.
Taking away the curiosity of firearms through familiarization is definitely a good approach. We preached the same concept when I was with the fire department regarding fire. Kids exposed to controlled fires (such as campfires) and allowed to watch things burn in them are much less likely to play with fire when unsupervised. I agree with keeping guns (and matches/lighters) out of the reach of the not-yet-responsible, but letting them explore them in a supervised setting when they want.
Many people are responsible well before their eighteenth birthday (and many are not even well after!), and I have a difficult time accepting that the state should mandate that they not be able to defend themselves in the home. Of course, an eleven-year old left alone (perfectly acceptable in my day) is not the same thing as a seventeen-year old.
Incidentally, my daughter is not yet two, so her experience with guns and fire is still pretty minimal..

 

[hso]

Who thinks this stuff up??

People who are interested in selling firearms and people who don't have hangups about the color of a gun.

MY daughter wanted an AR when she was 8, but she wanted it in colors she liked. So I took a pre-AWB Oly and had a customized .22lr upper built for it and then had it custom coated in pink and purple tiger stripe with little white hearts on it. Using it she's learned to run an AR and when she's old enough she can pop the top on it and put the .223 upper on it. Heck, I take it to shoot because it's light and handy and .22lr is cheap and fun.

That gun has been seen by hundreds of people and has help interest dozens of other kids in shooting. Pictures of it have even been all over the net and gotten others to make such a purchase or have such a gun built for their daughters, girlfriends and wives.

People that have hangups about pink firearms have deeper problems they need to deal with so just laugh them off as the pathetic idiots they are.

 

[MileHighMan]

How exactly did the girl having a gun help, or in any way alter, what happened here?

She did not see them after she armed herself. They did not see her with the rifle.

What did I miss?

 

[hso]

Since the BGs ran off before she came back with the gun the lesson for us is probably limited to the importance of making sure random scum can't break into your house easily while your unattended children are at home, having a plan that your kids can follow instead of just leaving them completely on their own, and teaching your kids to handle guns safely so they won't have an accident due to your negligence.

 

[Dnaltrop]

I just happen to like the child's no-victim mentality.

If there were no guns whatsoever in the house, and 3 thugs entered to attack an 11 year old unarmed girl during the course of a home invasion, we might be discussing "what if she had a gun" instead.

Teach your kids how to hurt vital soft spots(groin, throat, eyes) but only if they can't vacate the premises while calling 911 first.

I don't know how soon I'll let my eldest have unrestricted access to her .22's, but she's not there yet at 8.

 

[Apple a Day]

from the original story:

"I ran back into my mom's room and grabbed her little pink rifle, and there was two bullets in there," she said.

Any lessons to learn from this? Maybe for those with kids?

What's she going to do with only two rounds?
Reload! It's for the children!

 

[valorius]

With proper design those pistols (and rifles and shotguns) made from recycled milk jugs will outlast us all.

They may very well have heard her work the action and ran off.

I suspect that's exactly what happened.

 

[bobby68]

I think the Merced story was worse, when the girl understood she could not use her own weapons, she went to the neighbors and asked them to help because there were a number of younger brothers and sisters still there. The maniac killed those children with the pitchfork. The story was also that the neighbor refused the older sisters please to get a weapon and stop the maniac.

I would hate to be these parents, having to live with such a case of "if i had only..."

And as someone else clarified... the CA law isn't that you have to lock up the guns, but that you are responsible for any harm caused by a child if they were not locked.